Here’s a conversation I have every semester:
“If my sixteen-year-old son goes to the Ford dealership and convinces them to sell him a Ford Mustang on a payment plan, there may be problems. What are some of those problems?
“First of all, as a tenth grader, Marshall doesn’t have any money. But what if he does? What if he can make payments of $600 a month? Now Ford has entered into a contract with a minor. Is that legal? Yes.
“Ford has entered a questionable contract. But they can’t get out of it. As a minor, the contract can be voided by Marshall. But as long as he makes timely payments, Ford Motor Credit, LLC, cannot void the contract. If the contract can be voided by one party but not the other, that contract is called a VOIDABLE CONTRACT.
“A voidable contract is a formal agreement between two parties that can be rendered unenforceable by one of the parties.”
The Bible contains an interesting passage that reminds me of voidable contracts:
“When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said. When a young woman still living in her father’s household makes a vow to the Lord or obligates herself by a pledge and her father hears about her vow or pledge but says nothing to her, then all her vows and every pledge by which she obligated herself will stand. But if her father forbids her when he hears about it, none of her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand; the Lord will release her because her father has forbidden her” Numbers 30:2-5.
God takes vows seriously. “Do not make rash vows!” Ecclesiastes 5:2. Numbers 30 begins by saying that men who make vows better fulfill them. “He must not break his word, but must do everything he said,” Numbers 30:2. A vow made by a man cannot be broken.
However, there are exceptions for the vows of women. The vow of a young woman still living in her father’s house is voidable by her father, Numbers 30:5. If a married woman makes a vow, that vow is voidable by her husband, Numbers 30:8 and 30:12. But if a woman is divorced or a widow, her vows are not voidable.
This passage may seem to equate women with minors, as though the ladies lacked sophistication in some way. Given the fact that women in Biblical times were given less education and had less experience with matters of business and money, this may not be entirely false. However, this is also a matter of authority or headship.
Vows are made between an individual and God.
You cannot make a vow to do what the law already requires you to do. So vows are promises to exceed normal expectations in some way.
You might make a vow to offer a specific sacrifice at a specific time, or to read or memorize some scriptural passage, or to perform some voluntary act of service at the temple or for the local priest or the local poor.
And any activity taken on by a daughter, wife, or mother, may mean less time for her family. A father or husband may hear about a vow and conclude it will require too much of the woman’s time or too much of the family’s resources. And because the man is the head of the family, his objection means that the woman is released from her vow. (She can still perform the act, but the man’s objection frees her from the duty.)
This is the way authority and headship works. The husband and father may be no better able to make such decisions than his wife or daughter. But only one person can drive the bus—and men drive the family bus. The women are in no way less-than the men. But someone must be the leader and God chose to place family leadership on the heads of the men.
This truth is reinforced in the middle of the chapter. “Any vow or obligation taken by a widow or divorced woman will be binding on her” Numbers 30:9.
Is a widow or a divorced woman somehow more sophisticated than a married woman or a woman who has never married? No. But a widow is no longer covered by the authority of her father or her husband. There is no one left to void what might otherwise have been a voidable vow. In other words, widowed and divorced women no longer have an authority over them who can deliver them from their vow.
There is no indication husbands are wiser than their wives or daughters in this area. The worst Bible stories about rash vows are the stories of men, including Saul’s rash vow in 1 Samuel 14, David’s vow made in anger in 1 Samuel 25:22, and Joshua’s treaty with the deceptive Gibeonites in Joshua 9. The worst example is the rash vow of Judge Jephthah in Judges 11:30-40. Jephthah vowed to sacrifice whatever came out of his house first if God would help him defeat the Ammonites. Jephthah won the battle and his daughter was the first thing to walk out of his house.
The key to remember is the serious nature of making a vow to God. CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY.
“Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few” Ecclesiastes 5:2.
Leviticus 5:4-7 provides that sometimes we will make rash vows and God has provided a way out of those vows.
Even better, consider this. I ran across a writer online calling himself lateral_mind who says his favorite chapter in the entire Old Testament is Numbers chapter 30. (Huh? Seriously?) That’s what he says. Because in his eyes, Numbers 30 is a picture of the gospel. He puts it this way:
“Read Numbers 30 with the idea that we Christians are the Bride of Christ. Jesus is the Betrothed Husband, and God is our Father. We, who are in Christ, are released from the rash vow of [promising in Exodus 19:7-8 and 24:7 to perfectly uphold the Law] because Jesus bore our guilt.”[1]
God takes our words seriously. If you make a vow, you keep it! But God understands human frailty too. Sometimes we mess up.
“He knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust” Psalm 103:14.
God knows we make rash vows, and He provided a way out for most women in Numbers 30 and a way out for the rest of us (with a little extra work) in Leviticus 5:4-7. God will forgive. Under the New Covenant, He offers a way out when we trap ourselves with our own words—go to Jesus. He offers forgiveness, grace, and restoration.
Dear God, remind us to choose our words carefully. May we balance the need for total openness in prayer against the importance of taking words seriously. Remind us to come to You in awe and reverence and to let our words be few. Thank you for authority and headship, that so many of us, for so many years are guided by the authority of a wise husband or father. Make the men among us devoted and wise stewards of the incredible responsibility of guiding our families. And in all things, we lean on Your amazing grace. Thank you for washing away our guilt, from rash words or otherwise.
AΩ.
[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/Bible/comments/1fzy1t1/does_leviticus_547_mean_that_you_can_be_released/
Household Words: 